Latest attacks on patriotism and dissent

Former Senator Fred Thompson and the New York Post are the latest conservatives to suggest that President Obama or his administration are sympathetic to terrorists. Meanwhile, New York Times columnist Frank Rich joined the emerging anti-dissent caucus on the left in his column today, which smears John McCain as "unpatriotic."

As Media Matters documented, Thompson tweeted the following joke about President Obama's popularity:

You know how we could win the war in Afghanistan? Just send Obama over there to campaign for the Taliban.

Similarly, the New York Post published an editorial questioning whether Obama's Justice Department is on the side of terrorists:

Whose side is the Justice Department on: America's or the terrorists'?

It's just insane that a lawyer who defended Osama bin Laden's driver and bodyguard -- and who sought constitutional rights for terrorists -- could be one of the Obama administration's top legal officials.

...With high-profile terror cases coming up -- like Abdulmutallab's, and the outrageous Khalid Sheik Mohammed trial in New York -- Americans need to know: Is our government putting in a good-faith effort when it comes to punishing the men who want to blow up our people?

The call to treat terrorists like civilians in court has been all Team Obama.

Which means the president and his administration also owe the American people an answer: Is the government's prosecutorial deck stacked in favor of the terrorists?

Both statements are part of a long line of slurs against Obama's loyalty to this country that capitalize on the misperceptions that he is a Muslim or non-citizen.

Meanwhile, Frank Rich has joined Salon's Joan Walsh and Obama counterterrorism official John Brennan in smearing critics of the president as unpatriotic or traitorous. In his column today, Rich writes that John McCain "epitomizes the unpatriotic opposition" to Obama. Rich provides no evidence to substantiate this assertion other than characterizing McCain as "sneering" during the State of the Union address. It's sadly characteristic of the tone of much of Rich's recent work -- back in November, he compared the GOP to a series of murderous regimes and cults ranging from the Khmer Rouge to Stalinists to the Jacobins.

Comments

[Rob]

Contrary to your comment, Fred Thompson's tweet in no way suggested that President Obama is a Muslim or a non-citizen. It suggested that whomever Obama campaigns for (i.e., Deeds, Corzine, Coakley) loses. Thompson was making what we laymen refer to as a "joke." What Thompson wrote was fine; what you wrote about Thompson is, quite candidly, a smear.

[David]

Points to Brendan for noting explicitly that Rich provided no evidence for his criticism. OTOH the New York Post had plenty of evidence. In fact, the Post editorial had nothing to do with Obama's religion or citizenship. It made the point that he was not properly prosecuting the War on Terror.

President Obama should be using his full powers to fight the enemy IMHO. Of course he is constrained by the Constitution (as interpreted by SCOTUS), but he should not voluntarily put additional constraints on his own efforts. To do so is simply not doing his job.

The question, "Whose side is he on?" would be appropriate rhetoric for most Presidents behaving this way. However, it's unfortunate here, as Brendan points out, because some readers will take it as a suggestion that Obama is literally disloyal.

I see no reason to suspect disloyalty I think Hanlon's Razor applies: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

[David]

Incidentally, for an expert discussion of Obama's handling of the War on Terror, see this op-ed from yesterday's Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012903954.html

[bnyhan]

Rob -- I understand it was a joke (that's why I described it as such), but it plays on the misperception. Ask yourself this: did anyone make jokes like that about President Bush when he was much more unpopular than Obama? The answer is no.